Despite the Gloom, More Bush Boom

...a remarkable thing just happened: Real gross domestic product, the best summary report of the American economy, came in at a breathtaking 3.9 percent annual rate for the third quarter. In fact, following the 3.8 percent growth rate for the second quarter, the U.S. economy has posted its strongest quarterly growth in four years. The economy actually appears to be speeding up, following the relatively sluggish performance of the prior 18 months.

the inflation rate is actually slowing down. The consumer spending deflator is reading 2.1 percent for the past year, compared to over 3 percent six quarters ago. The core inflation rate is down to 1.9 percent, below the Fed’s 2 percent target.

Even employment is holding its own. According to Automatic Data Processing’s private employment survey, which showed its strongest gain in four months, October looks like it will produce about 125,000 new jobs.

Meanwhile, rising exports of American goods and services are booming to such an extent that the deep housing recession is being cancelled out. And while many continue to predict a consumer collapse because of falling home prices and tighter credit, after-tax inflation-adjusted income is 4.1 percent ahead of last year, for a $344 billion gain, while the purchase cost of energy prices are flat. The little noticed factoid is that consumer energy use per unit of GDP has actually fallen by more than 50 percent in recent decades.

The true message of the strong economy is that we’re virtually guaranteed of a Goldilocks soft landing or better — and certainly not a recession.

It’s interesting that while the Bush tax cuts of 2003 continue to encourage investment and entrepreneurship, expanding national income and higher tax collections have brought the big bad budget deficit down to $160 billion, or roughly 1 percent of GDP. Using something called the primary deficit — which extracts net interest on the debt and can be used to measure fiscal stimulus on the economy — we actually have a 70 billion surplus.

Do It Yourself Christianity

How To Listen To Sermons

The Evangelical Crackup

John Scott Redd, Vice Admiral, USN (Ret), K0DQ, 'Going Ashore':

Valuing Biblical Manhood, by John Piper

Last week at a lunch for pastors, I gave a message you can listen to called "Some Sweet Blessings of Masculine Christianity." I drew out eleven benefits of valuing biblical manhood. Here is my outline:

By “masculine Christianity,” I mean (though words are inadequate):

The theology and the church and the mission are marked by over-arching male leadership and an ethos of tender-hearted strength and contrite courage and risk-taking decisiveness and readiness to sacrifice to protect and provide for the community—the feel of a great, majestic God making the men lovingly strong and the women intelligently secure.

In this ethos…

1. Men are freed to have feminine traits without being effeminate and women are freed to have masculine traits without being tomboys. (The most admirable women have masculine traits and the most admirable men have feminine traits: Lopsided masculinity and femininity are not as admirable.)

2. Men are more properly attracted to the Christian life when it does not appear that he must become effeminate to be a Christian. (Dominance of female leadership undermines the proper sense of a man’s call to be a leader, protector, and provider.)

3. Women are more properly drawn to a Christian life that highlights the proper place of humble, strong, spiritual men in leadership. This more properly feels freeing and safe. It feels like a place where the men in her life might learn to take initiative without being domineering.

4. We are freed to celebrate strong, courageous women of God who love the biblical vision complementarity, without and sense of compromise. The men are so clearly strong and secure in their leadership that they are not threatened by women who are spiritually mature and effective in ministry.

5. Men are awakened to their responsibilities at home to lead the family and protect the family and provide for the family. A clear definition of manhood helps a man take responsibility.

6. Youth leaders and parents will catch a clearer definition of how to answer the question of a boy: “Daddy, what does it mean to grow up and be a man and not a woman?” And a clearer definition of how to answer the question of a girl: “Mommy, what does it mean to grow up and be a woman and not a man?”

7. The meaning of masculinity and femininity in singleness will be clearer and a lifetime of singleness without sexual intercourse will be more understandable and livable. (The definitions of masculinity and femininity in What’s the Difference? are not marriage-specific.)

8. The corporate worship teams are not dominated by women and the songs chosen are not dominated by a one-sided feel of intimacy or majesty. The presence of masculine men and strong theology and music give the corporate worship a feel of strength that helps men discover and express the fullness of the emotions toward God that God calls for.

9. The God of the Bible will be more fully portrayed and known than where the tone is more feminine. The God of the Bible is overwhelmingly powerful and authoritative and often violent. He is Lord and King and Master and Sovereign and Father and Ruler. His tenderness and gentleness and patience shine in their beauty because of appearing in this dominant light. Women need an ethos of this kind so that they can relax and be more of their nurturing selves without fearing that they must work to create the ethos of God’s grandeur lest it be lost because the men are not speaking it and modeling it.

10. Preaching is more readily prized. Preaching is “expository exultation”—a forceful acclamation of the greatness of God and a passionate appeal for full-blooded response to him. The fear of strong preaching is part of the effeminizing of the church, and the full range of the way God is and appears on the Bible is not known where preaching is simply casual and conversational.

11. A wartime mindset and a wartime lifestyle will feel more natural. And that is what the world needs from us—a readiness to lay our lives down for a great and global cause making all the sacrifices necessary to push the word of Christ into the most inhospitable places.

Simulations say ... Red Sox will be champions

Dell Learns To Listen

Clinton Finds Way to Play Along With Drudge

History of Religion

Steve Reinemund at Redeemer - A CEO's Views on a Life in Business

Tim Keller wrote a book

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, writes to his church that, yes, he has written a book that will be available in February. It is called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. The link above explains the need for the book.

You can pre-order it.

If you are unfamiliar with Keller, you can check out the message he gave at John Piper's 2006 national conference.

Nat'l terror center head quits for health

"The time has come for me to go ashore," retired Vice Adm. Scott Redd said in a note to his "shipmates" at the center Wednesday.

Willow Creek Repents?

"Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet."
Read the whole thing

White House Press Gaggle, 10/18/07

The National Counterterrorism had an announcement today. Vice Admiral Scott Redd has told the President that he plans to resign. This is a man who has had 40 years of government service. He has served his nation with distinction. The National Counterterrorism Center is part of the Director of National Intelligence operation; it plays a crucial role in protecting us from terrorist attacks. And we certainly wish Vice Admiral Redd all the best, and thank him for his commitment to serve.

Tragically Widening the Grounds of Legitimate Divorce, by John Piper

The October issue of Christianity Today carried an astonishing article on divorce and remarriage by David Instone-Brewer. What makes it especially amazing is that CT simply published it as if it were faithful to Scripture, with no counterpoint, and used the phrase on the cover “when to separate,” not “whether to separate”—even though Jesus said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9).

To put it bluntly, the implication of this article is that every marriage I am aware of could already have legitimately ended in divorce. I knew I disagreed with Instone-Brewer’s position. I wrote three chapters on marriage and divorce and remarriage in What Jesus Demands from the World and considered Instone-Brewer’s views more fully at that time. But I did not expect to read this astonishing extension of the divorce license. It is, in our context of easy divorce and cavalier covenant-breaking, tragic....

Read John Piper's Response to Instone-Brewer's Article in Christianity Today.

To Stop One Tooth From Aching, by C.S. Lewis

It may be asked whether, faint as the hope is of abolishing war by Pacifism, is there any other hope. But the question belongs to a mode of thought which I find quite alien to me.

It consists in assuming that the great permanent miseries in human life must be curable if only we can find the right cure; and it then proceeds by elimination and concludes that whatever is left, however unlikely to prove a cure, must nevertheless do so.

Hence the fanaticism of Marxists, Freudians, Eugenists, Spiritualists, Federal Unionists, Vegetarians, and all the rest.

But I have recieved no assurance that anything we can do will eradicate suffering. I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly at limited objectives, such as abolition of the slave trade, of factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can acheive universal justice, or health, or peace.

I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can. To avert or postpone one paticular war by wise policy, or to render one paticular campaign shorter by strength and skill or less terrible by mercy to the conquered and the civilians is more useful than all the proposals for universal peace that have ever been made; just as the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race.

Redd at whitehouse.gov

NY Times: Counterterrorism Leader to Resign

Statement by the DNI on VADM Redd's Resignation

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Washington, DC 20511
October 17, 2007
Statement by the Director of National Intelligence Mr. Mike McConnell

“Vice Admiral Redd's service as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center has been vital to the conduct of our nation's war on terror. His leadership of the nation's counterterrorism mission has been critical in safeguarding the Homeland and protecting our interests from terrorist attacks. During these past two and a half years, his steady hand has guided NCTC through challenging and rewarding times. I know his decision to step down was difficult as he has selflessly served his country for almost 40 years. On behalf of the Intelligence Community, I want to thank Scott, his wife Donna, and their family, for their service in and commitment to this noble cause.”

After Comments, U.S. Terror Chief Resigns

NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd's decision to leave was "absolutely not" related to his comments, and that he had not been pressured in any way to step down.

In a statement released this afternoon, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell thanked Redd for his service. "I know his decision to step down was difficult," McConnell said. A spokesman for his office said there was "no pressure whatsoever" on Redd to resign.

Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D. on Meet The Press

White House Civil War

Never mind

Terrorism center chief resigns, citing chronic knee problems

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), retired Adm. Scott Redd, has told his staff that chronic knee problems are prompting him to step down.

In a written statement to the staff, Redd said he reluctantly submitted his letter of resignation to President Bush, to be effective Nov. 10. He indicated he needs to undergo long-delayed surgery that he "could no longer neglect."

NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd needs total knee replacement on both legs, and the terrorism chief believed the surgery, recovery and rehabilitation would keep him away from the job too long. As a retired admiral, Redd felt that if the "captain was not on the bridge, someone else needs to step up," Kropf said. --From National Security Producer Pam Benson (Posted 2:07 p.m.)

Terror-Fighting Center Chief Steps Down

Vice Adm. John Redd John Redd listens during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on 'Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland: Six Years after 9/11' on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 10, 2007. Redd, the head of the U.S. agency responsible for analyzing intelligence on terrorism and developing counterterrorism strategies, announced his resignation on Wednesday. (Jim Young/Reuters)

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Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd said he is stepping down next month to have a long-delayed surgery and spend more time with his five grandchildren and the rest of his family.

U2's 'Joshua Tree' Blooms Again

Gossip more powerful than truth, researchers say

"We show that gossip has a strong influence... even when participants have access to the original information as well as gossip about the same information," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences..."People only saw the gossip, not the past decisions," he said in a telephone interview. "People really reacted on it."..."Rationally if you know what the people did, you should care, but they still listened to what others said," he said. "They even reacted on it if they knew better."

What's So Great about Christianity?

The Importance of News...or lack of it

Iran's al Qaeda: If the Revolutionary Guards aren't terrorists, who is?

The Rise of the Religious Left

One Man's Tale of Tribulation, by C.S. Lewis

My own experience is something like this: I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down.

At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by a dint of taking everything else away from me.

Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the heated bath is over–I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And this is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is hopeless.

Reds round-up on hiring of Dusty Baker

Brennaman: Baker a solid choice Veteran broadcaster Thom Brennaman dismissed popular criticisms of Dusty Baker -- that the new Reds manager has mishandled pitchers -- and called such comments “unfair.”

Did Reds hire Pied Piper? By hiring Dusty Baker, the Reds not only got an experienced manager, they may have a magnet for free agents. "A number of players…called me about coming to Cincinnati. I can attract players to come here,” Baker said today.

Baker wants to keep some coaches Dusty Baker said Monday that he expects some of the Reds coaches to return next season.

In defense of Dusty Dusty Baker is known as a players' manager. "I love Dusty," Reds radio announcer Jeff Brantley, who played for Baker in 1993, said Sunday. "I'd play for Dusty anytime." But the choice has already drawn criticism from some Reds fans.

Reds breaking new ground With Dusty Baker managing the Reds, Cincinnati becomes the only city in the country with African-Americans in head coaching positions of an MLB team and an NFL team.

Mackanin is open to a return Pete Mackanin got the call Saturday night. Wayne Krivsky told him that Dusty Baker was going to be the next manager of the Reds.

The List: Reds managers A look at Cincinnati's managers since 1900.

COMMENTARY Onscreen: Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz’s World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism is now available at bookstores everywhere. Drawing on Podhoretz’s seminal essays in COMMENTARY, World War IV addresses the most serious topic of our time—the battle against global Islamist terror—with its author’s customary force, wit, clarity, and courage. See below for our interview with Podhoretz about his book.

Is Industry-Funded Science Killing You? The overrated risks and underrated benefits of pharmaceutical research "conflicts of interest"

The 4 Boneheaded Biases of Stupid Voters

Cherry Garcia and the End of Socialized Medicine

The new pharmacopoeia offers people too much knowledge and control for one-size-fits-all health care to cope with.

The New Girl Order

Six years into the war, is U.S. safer?

Six years into the war, is U.S. safer?

Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case Study

Info-Techno Sabbath: Unplugging the God of Information Technology

In China, a Lake’s Champion Imperils Himself

This is the third in a series of articles and multimedia examining the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China's epic pollution crisis.

• Video: Lake Tai’s Environmental Warrior
• Audio Slide Show: A Lake In Crisis
• Expert Roundtable: Submit a Question

As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

By JOSEPH KAHN and JIM YARDLEY

The speed of China’s rise as an economic power is unprecedented, as is the scale of its problems.

• Video: The Real Cost
• Interactive Graphic: Mapping the Impact
• Audio Slide Show: The World’s Smokestack
• Translation: Text (pdf) | Audio (mp3)

Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up

By JIM YARDLEY

Groundwater levels are dropping around China, as development taps a finite water supply.

• Video: Sending Water North
• Interactive Graphic: Where Water is Scarce
• Translation: Text (pdf) | Audio (mp3)

The Pleasures of God, by John Piper

Listen to John Piper's message from this evening on the pleasures of God. (Update: The video is posted now, too.)
You can now listen to John Piper's 2nd message from the conference going on now in Sacramento. (Update: Video is posted.)
Listen to John Piper's 3rd message. (Update: Video is posted.)
Listen to the last session of this conference, a Q & A time with John Piper.

Remarkable Rockies' magic number is "64"

Kyle Blakeman, who attended ThunderRidge High School, played football but also loved baseball. (Photo courtesy Blakeman family)

Achtung Baby: Meditations on Love in the Shadow of the Fall

Achtung Baby: Meditations on Love in the Shadow of the Fall (33 1/3) by Stephen Catanzarite

60 Minutes, Osteen, and Horton

Michael Horton will be on 60 Minutes tomorrow night, October 14. White Horse Inn has the information here.

I also noticed that Westminster Seminary California has a collection of article from Horton written after his interview with 60 Minutes. It is titled, “Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case Study.” You can find the collection here, which includes these articles:

• Joel Osteen and the Glory Story
• What Ever Happened to Sin?
• Are You in God’s Story?
• Suffering and a Theology of Glory
• Doesn’t God Want Us to be Happy?

The extended version of the October 14 broadcast of the White Horse Inn is available for free download!


The October 14th broadcast of 60 Minutes will be available for viewing for several weeks at cbsnews.com.

Feel free to download and share this edition of The White Horse Inn. On this program, Michael Horton begins by evaluating the popular message of televangelist Joel Osteen, and then moves to a larger discussion of the true nature of the Christian gospel. In addition to the regular White Horse Inn panelists, Michael also talks with Dr. D.A. Carson about his work with the newly formed Gospel Coalition.

Related Articles from the archives of Modern Reformation Magazine

The following articles from past issues of Modern Reformation, while not directly about Joel Osteen, take issue with the theology that he popularizes, trace the history of this theology, and provide steps to take for those who wish to recover biblical Christianity in our age.

Whatever Happened to God?
by James M. Boice

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church
by R.C. Sproul

The Promise-Driven Life
by Michael Horton

The Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Reformation Essentials
by Michael Horton

Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful & Deadly
by John Piper

To Good to Be True:
Finding Hope in a World of Hype
By Michael Horton

In Too Good to be True the message is not that we can be happier, healthier, wealthier, smarter, or more successful if we just "give Jesus a chance." Instead of this unfailingly upbeat message, which eventually leaves us without much sustenance in times of real crisis, we need a view of God, ourselves and the real world that can give us real anchors when life's storms hit hardest.

Perspectives:

CP1100 - What's Wrong with the "Word-Faith" Movement?

CP1101 - Does God Have Faith?

CP1102 - Can We Have Whatever We Say?

CP1103 - Touching God's Anointed

CP1104 - Does God Always Heal?

CP1105 - Are We "Little Gods?"

Articles

JAW755-1 - What's Wrong With The Faith Movement (Part 1): E. W. Kenyon and the Twelve Apostles of Another Gospel

JAW755-2 - What's Wrong With The Faith Movement (Part 2): The Teachings of Kenneth Copeland

DF030 - The Misunderstanding Of Faith

DH018 - Healing: Does God Always Heal?

DH022 - Is There Healing In This Application?

DP060 - The Atonement of Christ and the "Faith" Message

DP061 - Freedom from the Faith Movement

DP065 - The Untouchables: Are 'God's Anointed' Beyond Criticism?

DP076 - Faith In Faith Or Faith In God?

DP077 - Growing Dangers in the Positive Confession Faith Teachings

JAT260 - Answering Questions about Televangelists

Book Reviews:

DP069 - A Summary Critique: Welcome, Holy Spirit (Review of Welcome Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn)

DN010 - Three Summary Critiques (Reviews of It’s All in the Playing by Shirley MacLaine, The Reincarnation Sensation by Norman L. Geisler and J. Yutaka Amano and The Health and Wealth Gospel by Bruce Barron)

JAO170 - A Summary Critique: Promoting The Gospel Of Self-Esteem (Your Best Life Now: Seven Steps to Living at Your Full Potential by

Analysts Find Israel Struck a Nuclear Project Inside Syria

Three Cheers Cincinnati, by The Screaming Mimes

Thankful

Wedding Dress

Trinity 101

For an excellent collection of resources for further study on the Trinity, see the Theopedia entry.

Bruce Ware has written an excellent book entitled, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance. This book can be read in conjunction with Dr. Ware’s lectures delivered at the 2005 Desiring God Conference for Pastors, "This is My Beloved Son": Exulting in the Trinitarian Relationships of Jesus Christ. Here are links to the talks and outlines:

• The Trinity of Persons: Unity and Distinction, Equality and Differentiation (MP3), (PDF)
• Jesus and the Father: Love and Obedience, Authority and Submission (MP3), (PDF)
• Jesus and the Spirit: Trust and Reliance, Exaltation and Glorification (MP3), (PDF)

Top 5 Questions: ALCS

Top 5 Questions: NLCS

Seeing With New Eyes

"When our gaze awakens to the gaze of God, we have started to see. Seeing clearly, we can love well."

Seeing with New Eyes is a collection of essays by noted CCEF counselor and apologist David Powlison, editor of The Journal of Biblical Counseling. Through Bible exposition, topical essay, editorial and sermon, the book explores two main topics:

• Scripture: In his Word, God speaks into real life to help us understand him and his intentions. How do we embrace Scripture to hear him at that level?
• People: How can this deeper understanding of Scripture help us understand - and help - people (including ourselves) amid the problems of daily life?

Seeing with New Eyes shows us how to look at many common struggles through the lens of Scripture, including:

• Worry
• Victimization
• "Love languages"
• The new biomedical approach to personal struggles

Powlison encourages readers to "think Christianly" about such things by learning to think God's thoughts after him. "Does God have a take on counseling?" he asks. "Of course, yes, amen." This book will help you to listen, look, and think wisely - and with renewed hope - following the patterns of God's gaze.

Caught Off Guard

In his new book author William P. Smith bridges the chasm between the heart and the head. Where is the reality of God in the middle of careers and groceries? Why are so many believers frustrated with the enormous gap between what they know about God and how they actually live? In Caught Off Guard (New Growth Press, January 2007), author William P. Smith graciously addresses these seekers who have become dissatisfied with merely "talking theology" and instead yearn to taste and experience the "real thing"-a God who desperately longs for relationship with them.

With real stories from today and biblical times, Smith demonstrates surprising and often unnoticed attributes of a loving and purposeful God by proving:

• How God draws near to the radically undeserving
• How God responds to people who have feeble faith or even active doubt
• How God will help you as you seek to live a righteous life
• How God changes the people around you by radically transforming your heart, mind and soul

In Caught Off Guard, Smith draws an irresistible picture of the heart of God that shatters conventional wisdom, remains true to biblical principles and invites people to reconsider a deeper trust in our uncontrollable, loving God.

Running Scared

Edward T. Welch reveals God’s plan for encouraging those in the grips of fear.

One of the haunting dilemmas of the human condition is that fear is "an inescapable feature of earthly life." Every person who has lived on this earth has encountered fear. Tragically, for this reason our race for the good life finds us all too often "running scared." In his new release, Running Scared, Edward T. Welch investigates the roots of fear in the human soul and the ramifications of living in the grips of anxiety, worry, and dread.

Welch encourages readers to discover for themselves that the Bible is full of beautiful words of comfort for fearful people (and that every single person is afraid of something). Within the framework of thirty topical meditations, Welch offers sound biblical theology and moment-by-moment, thoughtful encouragement for life-saving rescue in the midst of the heart and mind battlefield of rampant panic-stricken responses.

This comprehensive primer on the topic of fear, worry, and the rest of God will have readers retreating to scripture for invariable constancy, stalwart care, and robust comfort, instead of as Welch terms it, "hitting the default switch" by responding with characteristic human independence, control, and self-protectiveness. Running Scared affirms that, through Scripture, God speaks directly to our fears:

• On money and possessions
• On people and their judgments
• On death, pain, and punishment

Welch's lively text provides convincing evidences that humanity's struggle against active and dormant fears are countless. The good news is that God provides both the remedy and the cure for this malady in the person of Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and through powerful, life-altering promises in Scripture. Far more than merely another psychology "self-help" guide, serves as a biblical roadmap to a life of serenity and security.

ISBN 13 - 978-0-9785567-5-4
ISBN 10 - 0-9785567-5-5

Counseling Under the Influence (of the X-chromosome!)

How Do I Stop Losing Control With My Kids

'The Hobbit': Peace in Middle-Earth?

Fans have long dreamed ''Lord of the Rings'' director Peter Jackson would tackle J.R.R. Tolkien's ''The Hobbit,'' but a nasty legal battle with New Line Cinema has made it impossible. Now, at last, a cease-fire may be at hand

U.S. Intelligence Officials Will Probe Leak of Bin Laden Video

Despite little fan-fare, Byrd leads Indians

Paul Byrd lead the Indians past the Yankees and into the ALCS. (Kathy Willens / Associated Press)

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Rodney Dangerfield of baseball.

Indians right-hander Paul Byrd gets no respect.

"I'm not tall. I'm right-handed. I'm balding. I don't throw hard. And my breaking ball isn't that great," Byrd jokes.

Could Rodney have said it any better?

...His own son is — or was — one of his biggest skeptics.

Two years ago, Byrd was pitching for the Angels when his younger son, Colby, 7, made an observation that left him reeling.

Colby, as unimpressed with his father as only a son can be, told Byrd that if he was any good, he would be pitching for the Yankees.

Rodney, pick up the routine...

"He would play this baseball video game and say, 'You know, dad, your stuff's not very good,''' Byrd recalled Tuesday in an interview with FOXSports.com.

"He asked, 'Why are the Yankees always so good? Every video game we get, they've got the best team.' I explained to him that they spend a lot of money on players. If a player is really good, they try to trade for him. Usually, they have kind of an All-Star team.

"He kind of tucked that away in his memory," Byrd continued. "About two months later, I was signing autographs. He said, dead serious, 'Why would anyone want your autograph?' He said, 'You're not any good, you're just average.'

"I said, 'I've been pitching in the big leagues about 10 years. I've done this and that.' He said, 'Dad, if you were any good, the Yankees would have traded for you.'

"You talk about an all-time low. I kept waiting for the punch line. But there was no punch line. Nothing."

...

Byrd, an intense, fearless competitor, took great pride in the moment. His agent, Bo McKinnis, jokes that Byrd is a strong Christian, but has gotten into more fights over the years than any of his clients.

As Byrd spoke by phone from Cleveland on Tuesday afternoon, he had one more bone to pick. He was waiting for Colby to get home from school so he could call him at the family's residence in Alpharetta, Ga.

Colby, who once thought his dad only could be good if he pitched for the Yankees, was about to be taught a little respect.

"I'll have to remind him of that," Byrd said, laughing. "I'm going to harass him."

John Piper on David Powlison

John Piper has often commented on how helped he is by David Powlison’s thoughtful, biblical reflections on Christ and life. For example, he has written:

Among living authors who think deeply about the Word of God and the workings of the human soul, I know of no one who writes more perceptively or ministers more deeply to me than David Powlison. As I write this, for example (August, 2000), I am reading his article in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, titled “‘Peace Be Still’: Learning Psalm 131 By Heart.” I am finding myself naked before the Word of God, as if David Powlison were living inside of me and exposing the anxieties and obsessions of my heart. I am convicted and made to cry out for deeper, far deeper, freedom from pride and fear of man. There are many today who specialize in soul-care or deep, faithful grasp of Biblical theology; but there are few who do both. David Powlison does both.

At last year’s New Attitude Conference, C. J. Mahaney recommended and made available the following resources from Powlison that can aid you in knowing and enjoying Christ more:

• Personal Reflection
• X-Ray Questions

Additionally, Dr. Powlison has given a number of talks at DG conferences. Check out:

• God, Psychology, and Christian Care of the Soul, Part 1
• God, Psychology, and Christian Care of the Soul, Part 2
• God, Psychology, and Christian Care of the Soul, Part 3
• Christ's Grace and Your Sufferings
• Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken

Tim Keller: What are the risks for evangelicals?

Keller speaking at the EMA Conference in London, England.

Keller spoke in a number of sessions:

• What is an evangelical ministry?
• What are the risks for evangelicals?
• What is an evangelical ministry?
• Ministry in the city

In this talk, "What are the risks for evangelicals?" Keller talks about what's happening within the evangelical movement right now. There's a new hostility toward evangelicals in culture, and post-evangelicals (the emerging church) are also expressing criticisms. How should evangelicals respond?

Here are some highlights, along with notes from the entire talk.

Highlights

• Evangelicalism used to occupy the middle ground between fundamentalism and liberalism. It was orthodox, pro-scholarship, and facing the world. Recently, evangelicalism has become more hostile and condemning of culture. A younger generation has given up on evangelicalism as a middle ground and are looking for a new consensus. This group goes by a number of names, such as post-evangelicals or the emerging church.


• A new gospel is being preached about the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ overcoming the evil powers forces of injustice in the world. The pendulum has swung the other way.


• To respond, evangelicals must understand and practice biblical repentance as a result of believing the gospel. This will allow evangelicals to admit their sins, even if they disagree with 80% of the criticisms from the post-evangelicals, and even if the remaining 20% is expressed poorly. To the degree that we understand the gospel, we will be able to freely admit our shortcomings as an evangelical movement.


• Don't ever think that we can respond to legitimate criticisms of our practice by defending our doctrine. In defending our doctrines, we have not responded to the criticisms of our practices. Orthopraxy is part of orthodoxy.


• It is necessary to draw boundaries. What really matters is how we treat the people on the other side of those boundaries. People are watching. We're going to win the younger leaders if we are the most gracious, kind, and the least self-righteous in controversy. The truth will ultimately lose if we hold the right doctrines, but do so with nasty attitudes and a lack of love.


• We need to approach the controversies with a repentant heart corporately and say, "Despite all the bad things that are being said here, there's a core of truth here and we need to deal with it."

Notes from "What are the risks?"

Review from Keller's First Talk - What is an Evangelical Ministry?

Evangelicals are gospel people. They believe that the gospel essentials are the most important thing. There are many other things the Bible teaches, but we major in the gospel essentials. These things unite us:

• We get the gospel from the Bible, and believe in the final, full plenary authority and clarity of Scripture.
• We believe that the gospel is that we are saved by sheer grace alone through faith alone through the substitutionary work of Christ alone.
• The gospel is activated by lives initially and constantly through repentance.

Today, we want to look at what the challenges are that face evangelicals today, and how we can effectively handle them.

What are the challenges that face evangelicals today?

We are entering into a greater time of criticism, both within our ranks and outside. This is a great opportunity for growth, and a teachable moment. You always learn and grow more from criticism if you know how to handle that criticism.

There is a backlash in the culture against evangelicals, and there is fragmentation and controversy and disunity within the culture as well.

a. Backlash withIn culture

For years, evangelicals were tolerated or ignored. There is now a sense that we are dangerous. Why is this happening?

To some degree, the situation is our fault (American's fault). 25 years ago about half of evangelicals voted Democrat. Now about 80-90% vote Republican. Evangelical Christians are concentrated at the conservative end of the spectrum.

We are seeing a backlash:

• The number of Christians who say they have no religious preference has always been miniscule - 3 or 4%. In the last 10 years that has almost tripled. There is an enormous backlash against the religious right.
• When cultural influencers read books like The Next Christendom, describing a robust Christianity is growing at 7-10 times the population rate in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, they express panic and fear that we are going back to the dark ages.
• Books from Hitchens and Dawkins and Harris take an aggressive stand against Christianity. There are also some influential books in America warning that if we have a recession, the Christian right will take over and we'll be in the same position as Germany in the 1920s. Most of the reviews only say that this book goes a little over the top.

This hostility will continue within culture.

b. Fragmentation within evangelicalism

Billy Graham, Harold Ockenga, and Carl Henry in the States, and John Stott in the UK, carved out a new space between liberalism and fundamentalism between the 1940s and 1960s.

Basically evangelicalism is this: The liberals are not orthodox in their theology, but are engaged with culture and scholarship. Fundamentalists are orthodox in their theology, but are separatist and anti-intellectual. Evangelicalism aimed to be orthodox but engaged, concerned with scholarship, and facing the world. And actually, it worked. This middle ground has been the most vital - until recently.

The rise of the Christian right has made many evangelicals more hostile and condemning to culture. Then you have the charismatic movement, which has been good in many ways but is sometimes anti-intellectual.

A younger generation - sometimes called the emerging church, sometimes post-conservatives or post-evangelicals, are saying, "The old consensus isn't going to work anymore." They are responding to the anti-intellectualism of the charismatic movement, and to the rigidity, self-righteousness, and political narrowness of the Christian right. And they are blaming it on classical evangelical doctrine.

They are looking for a new center and consensus.

In the older culture, people believed they had to be good, that there are moral standards, and that if there is a God he's mad at them. Therefore the older gospel is that you have a problem with God and turns aside the wrath of God.

They say this gospel won't work anymore, because people don't believe they have a problem with God, and if we look within the church we see all kinds of problems and not many changed lives.

The new gospel is not that Jesus took away the wrath of God and that if you believe in him you can be forgiven. The new gospel is that the Kingdom of God is here. Jesus Christ has overcome the powers that are oppressing the world. By dying on the cross he has opened the way to a new way of life, allowing you to become an agent of peace and justice in the world. You become a Christian by entering into community and by a mixture of faith and work in making Jesus Christ Lord.

This gospel says to the non-Christian that we're not about the wrath of God, we're about a new way of life. It says to the unchanged evangelical that being a Christian is not just believing; it is following him.

We as classic evangelicals believe there are huge problems with that. When you change the gospel to deal with the powers, it ignores the problems within. As G.K. Chesterton supposedly said, the problem with the world is me. The problem with the world starts with our sin. The other problem is that we can't be agents of reconciliation without a heart change. We can't abandon being saved by grace alone through faith alone in favor of a program of works. It won't lead us to sing, "My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee."

Dr. Richard Lovelace used to say that in history you see the pendulum swing like this: In times of low spiritual vitality, orthodox churches tend to detach justification from sanctification. That is, people say that they are saved without working that out in repentance. As a result, people are shaped by culture and not changed. Then the pendulum swings the other way, and people begin to load sanctification into justification. Some of the puritans did that; so does the higher life movement. That is happening again. The emerging church is, to some degree, loading sanctification into justification, when what we really have to do is repent.

How can we effectively handle these challenges?

How are we going to face this hostility from culture and fragmentation within? The general resource is the biblical doctrine and practice of repentance.

Luther began the 95 Theses that began the Reformation by writing this: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent,' he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

Why did Luther say this? Nobody was bigger than Luther on the difference between faith and works. Religious people generally believe that God accepts them because of their good works. In other words, they base their sanctification on their justification. In which case, religious people are either sinners or they are loved at any given time.

Luther understood that the gospel - salvation by grace through faith through the substitutionary work of Christ alone - brings a paradoxical personal identity that nobody else has. We are simultaneously sinners (in ourselves) and completely accepted (in Christ) - simul iustus et peccator. We have Christ's righteousness. We understand that we're sinners but infinitely loved. We're as loved now as we will be a million years from now.

This means that we are weaker and more sinful than we ever before believed, but also more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope.

If that is the case, the way that you can tell that you are a Christian who understands the gospel, rather than a religious person, is how you handle repentance. If you are religious, repentance is occasional and traumatic. It's what you do to get out of the sin bucket into the love bucket. Repentance then becomes another weapon in your arsenal of self-salvation. It becomes a work. But you never know if you've been repentant enough.

But if you believe the gospel, then we understand that the gospel has nothing to do with our performance. This gives us the freedom to see sin everywhere in our lives. We don't have to be in denial about sin in our lives. George Whitefield wrote:

I cannot pray but I sin -- I cannot preach to you or any others but I sin -- I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it, my repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins.

To the degree that we understand the gospel, we are free to admit the worst about ourselves finally. Repentance isn't how we get right with God; it's just the right response. It gives immediate assurance.

Lloyd-Jones tells the story of someone who says, "I was at your house the other day, and you weren't home. A bill came due to you, and I paid it, so you're off the hook." Lloyd-Jones said that we would have no idea how to respond to this man, because we're not sure if it was a package with postage due costing a few pence, or it could be back taxes due worth thousands of pounds. Until we know the size of our debt, we don't know whether to say "thank you" or fall down and kiss his feet. The more we understand the size of our sin, we understand how loved we are.

My dear friends, most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus' costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don't need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn't based on their performance.

All of life is repentance, and repentance increases joy. It's not traumatic; it's joyful and it's healing.

What this means for us is that as we look at the criticisms we are getting, especially from inside, it's like when I do marriage counseling. A husband and wife are both saying something critical about the other. In each case, 80% of what they are saying is wrong. And yet 20% is right. Yet with the 20% that is right, the way it's expressed may be exaggerated, and the motivation may be wrong. It may be expressed outrageously. It's almost impossible for each side to hear the truth.

What I say to them if they are Christians is, "If you believe the gospel, you will be humble enough and assured enough that you can admit your sin and admit the 20% that's right without excuses or rancor. Just ignore all the exaggeration and bad motivation and admit that 'what you say about this is right and I'm going to repent of it.' If you both do this, it's a tremendous opportunity for growth. If you don't do it, it's because you don't believe the gospel no matter what you say."

All the criticisms of the post-conservatives are wrapped in horrendous doctrinal proposals, and yet at the bottom there is usually a core of truth. It usually has to do with our practices.

Never believe that criticism of our doctrine is all that's going on. It's also criticism of our practices. And don't think that by writing books defending your doctrine you've dealt with the criticisms of our practice.

So, for instance, we may be criticized for being unkind to homosexuals, that we don't know how to be kind to them or pastor them. We may be told that we need to change our understanding of what the BIble teaches about homosexual practice. The answer to that is no, but the first part is true. We can hold to our doctrine and admit that we have been unkind. Can we do that?

Or, some may say that conservative evangelicals don't care about the poor. So, we're told we have to redo the entire gospel, so that Jesus Christ on the cross is only dealing with corporate, structural evil, and becoming a Christian is simply joining a community that is working for peace and justice. Our answer has to be yes and no: yes, we need to care about the poor in a way that we haven't; no, we're not going to re-engineer the gospel.

Can we go back through every single criticism wrapped in these horrendous doctrinal proposals and catch the core of valid criticism, no matter how poorly motivated and exaggerated? Is there any way we can do that? See, if we understand the gospel, we won't get on our horse and say, "How dare you say that?"

There is a whole slew of younger leaders out there. They are watching us. We can't avoid drawing boundaries. Everyone does it, and if they say you're not doing it, then you're drawing a boundary by saying you're not doing it. But what matters is how we treat the people on the other side of the boundary. We're going to win the younger leaders if we are the most gracious and the most kind and the least self-righteous in controversy toward people on the other side of the boundary.

Some may say, "They should care about truth and they shouldn't care about things like that," but doesn't Jesus give them a warrant here when he says that we would be known by our love? Isn't orthopraxy part of orthodoxy? Of course it is!

One of the worst things that has happened over the years is typified by the book Reforming Fundamentalism, a history of Fuller Seminary. At a certain point in Fuller's history, they dropped their commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture. Here's how it actually happened. It happened in the mid-1960s, not because there were two parties, one for and one against inerrancy. There was a group that believed in inerrancy, and there was a group that believed the Bible has errors in it. But then there was a group in the middle that actually believed in inerrancy but hated the attitudes of those who championed it. As a result they were just indifferent. As a result, the group that didn't believe in inerrancy won.

I believe that is happening now. There are all kinds of people looking at the controversies, and saying, "I actually believe in the doctrine of those guys, but I absolutely their demeanor and tone of voice." Therefore they're just sitting out, and as a result the truth loses because of a lack of love.

Lastly, let me apply this to a few areas. Here are a few areas we'll have to approach with a repentant heart corporately and say, "Despite all the bad things that are being said here, there's a core of truth here and we need to deal with it."

• Class and race - We need to reflect biblically and theologically on class and race. Culture is always invisible to those within it. Don't ask a fish to write an essay on water, because the fish will say, "What's water?" Some years ago, an African-American friend said, "The trouble with you white Christians is that you don't know you have a culture. We talk about black culture and a black way of preaching and a black way of music, but the way that you do things, that's just the way it's done." Class is a bigger deal in the UK than it is in other countries. What you make, where you went to school, your accent, how to process and express emotion, how you dress - in each class, those things are different. The people who are down in the scale feel their exclusion here more than in other countries. If we recognize that we're not doing a good job ministering to the working class, I don't have the solutions, but why in the world aren't we talking about that? We may expect people to get over it, but that's putting sanctification before justification. You need to do something to adapt. The European future is a multi-racial one. You have to deal with this topic.


• Corporate vs. individual - Here's another one: unlike the progressive evangelicals who pit the individual against the corporate, we don't have to. A robust Christian theology can pull together working for peace and justice in society with the old-fashioned gospel that says people need to be converted. There is no reason to pit these two against each other. It can be done. It worries me that very few movements are combining the two. Churches that focus on social renewal often can't evangelize themselves out of a paper bag, and churches that focus on evangelism and discipleship often ignore caring for the needs of the neighborhood because they're scared of taking resources away from evangelism. There is a way of integrating the two. Think about that, and be the first movement in the whole world of evangelicalism that really integrates the two.


• Suffering - A lot of the younger evangelicals are, I think, afraid to suffer. They may be making doctrinal changes because they don't want to look stupid in the eyes of the world. Repenting of that is important. We should understand our fear of suffering and persecution and repent of it. The Bible doesn't just give us a joy that works in spite of suffering. It holds forth a joy that is enhanced by faithful suffering. Great line from Lord of the Rings: "Is everything sad going to become untrue?" The answer of the gospel is yes. Our eventual joy will be greater because of our current suffering. Nobody grows except through suffering.

From The Brothers Karamazov:

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidian mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened with men.

Something so great is going to happen in the end that all of the suffering is only going to enhance the future and ultimate glory greater. It begins to happen as we embrace suffering faithfully.

If we embrace the gospel and we're willing to repent and own the 20%, and we are gracious to our opponents, we will grow in a way that only repentant people can.

Fed fast food of opinion, ESPN audience starves for reported fact

"factuality has been devalued in 24/7 sports media. If you look at the proportion of airtime and cyberspace devoted to reporting fact versus delivering opinion on ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN Radio, it is clear that the main function of sports news is to serve as the molehill on which mountains of opinion are built. We don't have news cycles anymore. We have opinion cycles."

Daily Blog Buzz: Leak or Lies?

The Shrinking Deficit

We hate to be the bearers of good news, but someone's got to do it: The Congressional Budget Office has released its preliminary estimates for Fiscal Year 2007 that ended September 30, and the federal budget deficit fell again, this time by 35% to $161 billion.

There's more to applaud, if you can stand it: Since 2004, deficit spending has tumbled by $251 billion, which is one of the most rapid three-year declines in U.S. history. The deficit as a share of the economy is down to 1.2%, or about half the average of the last 50 years. This improvement is especially remarkable given the $150 to $200 billion a year of post-9/11 expenses for homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Americans coughed up a record $2.568 trillion in taxes to the IRS in 2007, or 6.7% more than in 2006. This means federal receipts have climbed by $785 billion since the 2003 investment tax cuts, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. Income, dividend and capital gains tax rates were all cut in 2003, but individual income tax receipts have soared by 46.3% in four years, with payments by the wealthy accounting for most of the windfall. Last year's increase in individual income payments was 11.3%, or more than double the rate of growth in nominal GDP. Don't worry, class warriors: Hannah Montana and others among the "new rich" are paying their taxes.

Overall federal revenue is now 18.8% of GDP, compared with the 18.2% average of the past 40 years. The nearby table shows how far off CBO was, as usual, in its static-revenue estimates that failed to anticipate the impact of taxes on incentives and growth.

The biggest surprise in fiscal 2007 was the slower growth in federal spending. CBO reports that federal outlays crept up just 2.8% last year (2.5% after adjusting for timing in payments), which was "well below the 7.3 percent average over the previous five years." The decline was largely due to lower disaster-related payments compared with Hurricane Katrina's aftermath the year before, plus the budget deal last winter that kept domestic spending stable as Congress changed hands.

This is a one-year wonder. Congress is already gearing up to splurge again, with its $35 billion expansion in the children's health program, a $286 billion five-year farm bill, $23 billion in water projects, and $22 billion more in non-defense discretionary spending. Combine this blowout with slowing revenue growth due to the housing recession, and the deficit may not fall again in 2008. This is all the more reason for President Bush to finally use his veto pen on spending bills.

The overriding lesson here is that the best antidote for deficits is faster growth, not tax increases. The budget deficit has declined more rapidly this decade in the wake of the Bush tax cuts than it did in the 1990s in the wake of the Clinton tax increases. CBO is still forecasting a balanced budget in 2010, but if Congress gets its way on spending and taxes, all of this progress will be short-lived.

White House on bin Laden tape leak

Q Dana, you said this morning in the gaggle that the White House did not leak the information about the bin Laden tape. How do you know that?

MS. PERINO: Well, this is -- let me take you back. This is the -- there was a private company that contacted the White House to let us know that they had found the Osama bin Laden tape, asked us if we wanted to have the federal government review it. When -- the standard practice at the White House is to take that phone call -- to take that request and direct it to -- directly to the DNI's office. So we do not ask to have that information just solely reviewed at the White House, we immediately turn it over to the National Center for Counterterrorism.

That's what Fred Fielding and Joel Bagnal did, the two people who were aware of the link. And it went to the DNI -- I'm sorry -- it went to the NCTC. And to the extent that we have Americans coming forward to provide us information, whether it be a private citizen or a private cooperation, or anybody in America that can provide the government information, we take it very seriously that they should, one, feel comfortable that in providing that information, that their sources will be protected; and that we will act on it, if necessary. We appreciate what they did. This was a cause of concern that the information was leaked. And I would have to refer to the DNI's office in regards to any possible investigation into that leak.

Q But I guess my question is, Fielding and Bagnal both knew about the information; you're positive they didn't leak it or take it --

MS. PERINO: Correct.

Q -- or take it further than the DNI's office?

MS. PERINO: We asked that the company contact NCTC directly and get that information to them directly.

Q So they didn't contact NCTC, the SITE company did. Who did Fielding and Bagnal contact? DNI?

MS. PERINO: I would check on that. I know that they asked for the company that called to contact NCTC directly. I don't know who else they might have called within our government -- possibly the DNI's counsel's office. But I'm not positive. I can check.

Q My question is, you're saying they contacted these other places. The company asked them not to. So how do you know that the leak didn't come --

MS. PERINO: No, no, we asked --

Q -- from Fielding or --

MS. PERINO: Because I've talked to Fred.

Q Okay, that's my question.

MS. PERINO: I have talked to Fred. And what we do is we ask -- the call comes in from the company, and then Fred said, we'd like for the federal government to be able to look at this, thank you, but don't send it to me, send it directly to the NCTC -- the National Center for Counterterrorism -- which was what was -- taken place here.

Al Qaida Goes Dark?

Fact is, the intel community knows far more about Al Qaida communications than most people realize--and that fact isn't widely publicized, for obvious reasons. But that depth of understanding does surface from time-to-time, particularly when a major terror plot is foiled. For example, DNI Mike McConnell recently told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that "wiretaps" (a euphemism for tailored signals intelligence collection and analysis) "contributed significantly" to the recent arrest of terror suspects in Germany and Denmark. An anonymous government official subsequently told The New York Times that Admiral McConnell "might have misspoken," suggesting that the DNI revealed a bit too much in his public testimony.

While the nation's intel apparatus is certainly capable of gross buffoonery, it's unlikely that any mid or high-level official would be willing to "blow" Obelisk unless they had other, better means for accessing Al Qaida communications--avenues that wouldn't be compromised by media coverage of the bin Laden video. Presumably, those 'access points" are still available and producing valuable intelligence--as evidenced by last month's arrests in Europe.

Meanwhile, Ms. Katz and her organization learned a couple of hard lessons. First, don't always assume you know more than the folks at Ft. Meade, who still have tools and methods that are unavailable to commercial intel firms. Secondly, be careful entrusting proprietary information to intel and security bureaucrats, who will gladly use private data to cover their own work, even if it means compromising your sources in the process.

Money can't buy glove (or championships)

What Is Orthodoxy?

Part 1, Part 2.
"A two-part post by Mark Dever that looks at the essentials of Christianity--those basics we must agree upon. He gives three ways that we learn what we must agree upon, gives a fourfold test you can put on a doctrine to discern its importance, and then gives three things ("the essentials of the essentials") that we must agree upon to have meaningful cooperation as Christians."

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets

Qaeda Goes Dark After a U.S. Slip: Enemy Vanishes From Its Web Sites

Evangelical President

Excerpts from Bill Sammon's new book on the President's faith and its impact on public policy. Order Book | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Worshipping at the Altar of Mac

The Mac community is the equivalent of a new-age religion, according to Russell Belk, a consumer behaviorist. Belk argues Mac religion is based on myths surrounding the orgin of Apple, the savior status of Steve Jobs, and the devout faith of the Mac congregation.

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Photo: Thomas Hannich

Chill out. Stop fighting over global warming -- here's the smart way to attack it.